Hatcher questions Angels' approach to hitting

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Angels, we have a problem.That pretty much summed up batting coach Mickey Hatcher's message when he called his Los Angeles hitters for a 10-minute get-together Monday before the start of a three-game series against the team right behind them in the AL West, the Oakland A's.Just don't let the one-run, two-shutout, 20-straight-scoreless-inning weekend at Dodger Stadium get to you, Hatcher said, admitting he felt a little like a triage specialist at the scene of a major disaster.Where to start? Who to start with?"Exactly," Hatcher said, "just don't ask me to explain what happened at the Dodgers. I don't know."It didn't get much better Monday night in a 6-1 loss to the A's as the Angels managed only four hits.And here's one thing you can know about this Angels team, and its ability to win with an offense that's 12th in the AL in hitting (.255) and 13th in runs scored (341, or 87 fewer than Boston). In the entire history of baseball, only three teams have fared better when scoring three or fewer runs than these Angels, who are an impressive 16-20 when doing so. And all three of those teams, the 1906 Cubs (34-30), the 1907 Cubs (42-38) and the 1910 A's (30-33) played in the dead-ball era.But no longer is the "Hey, we're still winning" answer working, with Monday's loss the Angels' fourth in the last five games.Nor is a hands-off approach. Hatcher admitted that he was getting more involved in each player's approach, and plan, for hitting."I am," he said, and next to him behind the cage, giving up on some of his fungo duties, was Angels manager Mike Scioscia."There are definitely some hitters we'd like to see taking more pitches," Hatcher said, "and they're the ones swinging away. And some need to square up that first fastball they see and work the count.''Outfielder Torii Hunter talked to the players, he admitted, but wouldn't say what he said or if he was the one who asked for the meeting.Hunter promised the Angels would turn this around.Scioscia echoed that sentiment: "Nobody's taking it lightly," he said. "They're too good for this to last."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)